Back on Solid Ground (26 page)

“I need you
to pull over when we come to it,” Carlos said.  Niki, Eli and Jason  looked
over at him and they could tell by the tone of his voice that something was
terribly wrong.

The motel
came into view minutes later and Carlos instantly felt sick to his stomach. 
Ramos pulled the car to a stop and Carlos turned to Jason and pointed at Niki,
“Keep him in the car.”

Niki opened
his door but Jason held on to his arm.  “You need to stay here,” Jason told
him.  “Let Carlos do his thing.”

Niki jerked
his arm away and got out of the car and started toward the motel.  Carlos
turned around. “Keep him back!” he shouted angrily.

Eli and Jason
grabbed Niki and held on to him as Carlos approached Stacy’s motel room.  The
door was ajar and there was dried blood all over the doorknob and splattered
all over the outside of the door.  Carlos’ stomach heaved when he walked into
the room and looked around.  It had been a bloodbath.  There was blood from one
end of the room to the other, on the floor, the walls, the bed, the table. 
There was a huge puddle of congealed blood on the floor by the door, and
evidence that a body had been dragged away.  He went into the bathroom and
looked around.  Stacy’s wetsuit was lying on the side of the tub. 

Niki broke
loose from Jason and Eli and was walking towards the room when Carlos came out.

“Don’t go in
there, Niki,” Carlos told him, but Niki shoved him out of the way. 

Niki could
see the blood on the door before he reached the room and he could tell he was
going to be sick.  He pushed the door open and the awful stench was the first
thing to hit him.  Eli and Jason followed Niki inside and the three were
stunned into silence as they stood taking in the grisly scene. 

“
Jesus
Christ
!” Niki said, under his breath.   He went in the bathroom and came
out holding the wetsuit.  He handed it to Eli, and walked outside and threw up
in the dirt.

Jason turned
to Eli.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much blood,” Jason said, feeling
nauseated himself.  He went in the bathroom and looked around.  There was no
blood, but there was a broken mirror laying in the sink.  When Jason came out
of the bathroom, Eli was squatting beside the large pool of blood.

“There’s some
of Stacy’s hair down here,” Eli said with dread.  “And check this out,” he
said, pointing to the shard of glass. 

“That came
off the mirror in the bathroom,” Jason said.

Eli walked
around the room examining the floor trying to figure out what had gone on. 
After a while, he stood up and looked at Jason in amazement.  “Stacy was alive
when she left here,” he concluded.  “Look.  These are her footprints,” Eli
said, pointing to the corner.

Jason got
down closer to the ground.  They were hard to see because they were bloody
footprints imprinted on the bloody floor, but they were definitely there. “
I’ll
be damned
,” Jason said.

“She crawled
over here, then she walked from here to the door,” Eli said following the
bloody tracks. 

Eli ran out
of the room looking for his brother.  “Niki!” Eli yelled.  He found Niki at the
side of the motel. “Stacy left that room alive!”

Niki looked
at Eli like he had heard him wrong. 

“Her
footprints lead right out the door.  Come on,” he said, heading back to the
room.  Niki ran to catch up with him. 

They went
back into the room and traced Stacy’s movement from the door.

“These are
hers,” Eli said, pointing to two bloody footprints outside the door.  “This
dirt would have soaked up the blood, but look,” he said, pointing to the
ground, “there was still some blood on the side of her foot here; that’s a
footprint.”

Niki walked
in the direction of the footprints.  “There’s blood on this door.  Look, you
can make out her knuckles.”  He ran down to the next door and the one after
that.  “She knocked on all these doors!”

Eli was
standing at the door where the man had helped her.  “Check it out,” Eli said.

There were
entire handprints on the door where Stacy had pounded on it, and there were
marks from her bloody clothes where she had leaned against the door. 

“She was
covered in blood,” Niki said.  He turned the knob, but it was locked, so he
kicked in the door.  They went inside and turned on the light.

“She was in
here,” Eli said.  “Here’s more blood,” he said, pointing to the back of the
door and to the floor. 

“Let’s go
find out who was in this room,” Niki said. 

Carlos, Jason
and Ramos were standing outside. 

“So your
girlfriend lived through that,” Ramos said, motioning to Stacy’s room.  “Those
redheads are fighters,” he said.   He directed himself to Eli, “We found your
man that likes green eyes.  But he’s not Colombian.  He’s American.  My men are
watching his house and if she turns up there, they’ll grab her.”

The men went
around to the back of the motel and found the grubby room that served as the
office. 

“You want
rooms?” the owner asked in Spanish.   The little man was in desperate need of a
shave and a bath and clean clothes.  His filthy T-shirt was inside out and
backward, and it pulled tight across his gut in the front.  He smelled like a
mixture of stale beer and cigarettes.

“We want
information,” Niki responded in Spanish.

The look on
the man’s face changed instantly and it was obvious that he was not willingly
going to do anything to help them.  Niki pulled out a wad of bills and counted
out five $20 bills and the man’s face lit up.  Niki laid the bills on the
counter and then put his hand on top of them. 

“The names of
everyone who stayed in Room 6 since Thursday?” Niki asked.

The owner’s
face fell.  “This is not the type of motel where we take people’s names,” he
said.

The sick
feeling in Niki’s gut returned.  But then the man’s face lit up again.  “I can
tell you that the man from Room 6 will be back.  He comes here every week with
his lady friend, sometimes twice.” 

Niki laid
down five more $20s.  “What can you tell me about the people who stayed in Room
2?” he asked.

“Those men, I
had never seen before,” he said.   “But I found one of them dead  inside the
room.” 

“What about
the girl?” Niki said.

“I never saw
a girl,” the owner replied.

“Where’s the
body?” Niki asked.

“I don’t
know.  The next time I went back to the room, it was gone.  Someone had taken
it.”

Niki handed
the man another hundred.  “When the man from Room 6 comes back, I want you to
call this number.”  Niki turned to Ramos and Ramos wrote down the number and
handed it to the owner.  “You’ll get another $200 if I talk to him.”

The owner was
salivating with excitement.  “Yes, yes,” he said.  “I will call this number as
soon as the man returns,” he said, putting the $300 in his pocket. 

The men went
back around to the front of the motel and got back in the car. 

“Where to?”
Ramos asked.

“Corazon’s
compound,” Niki said, and they got back on the road and headed towards
Medellìn.  They got to Medellìn and Ramos pulled over at the Hotel Four Points
Sheraton.

“We’ll eat,
then visit your man,” Ramos said.

They went
into the hotel restaurant and took a round table in the corner.  The waiter
brought menus and they ordered lunch.

“Would the
closest hospital to that motel be in Bogota?” Niki asked.

“Yes.  But
the closest town is Manizales.  There would be doctors there,” Ramos said. 
“But you have to realize that people would be reluctant to help your friend
because of the risk of reprisal by whoever she was running from.  It’s possible
that she found help with the person she left with, but it’s just as likely she
didn’t.  Corazon would reward the man handsomely for her return.”

Niki didn’t
say anything. 

“Assuming
your friend got away from Corazon, would there be any purpose of your going to
his compound if he no longer had her?” Ramos asked, trying to feel out the
situation.

“We would
still go there,” Niki said.  “He’s a direct threat.”

“I see,”
Ramos said.  “Then perhaps I should request assistance from some of my men.  I
could have them take care of him for you.”

“Thanks for
the offer, but this is something I have to take care of myself,” Niki said.

Ramos
smiled.  “I understand.  Obviously the redhead is very special to you.”

Niki breathed
in deeply and leaned back and stretched.  He was about to reply when the man
sitting next to them turned the page of the
El Tiempo
newspaper he was
reading and something caught his eye.

“
Son of a
bitch!
” Niki said. 

He got up and
snatched the newspaper out of the man’s hands.  Stacy’s picture was on the
front page. He scanned the caption, “
American Woman Finds Sanctuary at U.S.
Embassy after Abduction
.”

“She made
it!” he said, in disbelief. “Son of a bitch! She fucking made it!” he yelled,
waving the newspaper in the air. “The guy took her to the Embassy.”  Eli, Jason
and Carlos were out of their chairs trying to get a look at the paper and Ramos
had called the waiter back over.

“Bring us
your best bottle of tequila,” Ramos told the waiter.

“Right away,
sir,” the waiter said.

They were all
talking at once. 

“What’s it
say?” Eli said. 

“Is she
okay?” said Jason.

“Read it out
loud,” Carlos said.

Niki looked
over at the owner of the newspaper, “I’ll give it back in a minute,” he said,
then he sat back down and read the article out loud.

“
U.S.
citizen Stacy Trent made her way to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota after being
abducted during a bank robbery in San Antonio, Texas.  Miss Trent managed to
escape from her captors and sought help from a Bogota man, who brought her to
the Embassy.  She had been badly beaten and was unconscious upon arrival at the
Embassy.  Miss Trent was transferred to San Antonio and is expected to be
hospitalized for several days.”

“Way to go,
Stacy,” Niki said, under his breath. 

He laid the
page flat on the table and they all gathered around to look at the picture. 
Stacy’s face had been beaten so badly she was barely recognizable.

“Look what he
did to her,” Niki said angrily.

“At least
she’s alive,” Eli said.

“Which is
more than you’ll be able to say about Corazon,” Ramos said. 

Ramos poured
tequila into the five shot glasses and raised his glass to Niki. “To your good
fortune.  I’m glad your girlfriend is safe,” he said smiling.

“Thanks,”
Niki said.  He looked over at Eli, “I have a girlfriend.”

Eli laughed. 
“Your girlfriend is probably going to have us all arrested.”

“No way,”
Niki said, refilling his glass.  He took the shot and sat back in his chair,
then he tapped his finger on the photo. “I’m gonna marry that girl.” 

Jason pulled
the paper over to get a better look.  “I wonder what the deal is with her
father.” When Niki didn’t say anything, Jason said, “I hope you’re not thinking
of going back to San Antonio anytime soon, because it’s way too risky.  We have
no idea what Stacy told the cops.  You could get all of us arrested.”

“I’m not an
idiot,” Niki said irritably.

“No, but you
haven’t been thinking straight lately either,” Jason said. 

“Stacy’s not
going to say anything to get us arrested,” said Carlos.  “She’s in love with
Niki.  But I agree that it’s not safe to go back there until things die down.”

Ramos was
confused.  “I thought she was your girlfriend.  Why would she have you
arrested,” he asked Niki.

“We kidnapped
her before Corazon did,” Niki said.  “We’re the ones who robbed the bank.”

Ramos laughed
and refilled all the glasses.  “The girl was kidnapped twice in the space of a
week?” he asked. 

“Yeah, bad
luck, huh?” Eli said.

“You know
what they say about bad luck,” Ramos said. “It comes in threes.”

Jason looked
at Niki.  “It’s not safe for us to go over and take care of her father.”

“I’m not
arguing with you,” Niki said. “I just wish we had killed the bastard when we
had the chance.”

“Look,” Eli
said, “Stacy’s as smart as any of us.  She’s also just as resourceful, probably
more so.  Obviously, she’s a survivor,” he said.   “She’ll tell the FBI that
her father was behind her kidnapping.”

“I agree,”
Carlos said. 

Stacy woke up
Sunday morning ready to go home.  She swung her feet off the side of the bed
and sat up.  When the room didn’t spin, she got to her feet and walked down to
the nurses’ station, wheeling her IV pole with her. 

A nurse
looked up with surprise. “Stacy! You look like you’re feeling better,” she
said.

“I am,” Stacy
said smiling.  “I’m ready to go home.  Can you call my doctor and tell him I
want to be released?”

“Well, it’s
only 7:00.  He usually doesn’t get here on Sunday until 11:00 or so.  And I
don’t want you to get your hopes up, because I’m not so sure he’s going to let
you go home today.”

“Oh,” Stacy
said.  She wasn’t going to argue with the nurse, but she wasn’t going to stay
until 11:00 either.  “Okay,” she said agreeably, and she went back to her room
and picked up the phone and dialed a number.  It rang four times before someone
answered.

“Hello,”
Holly said, awakened out of a dead sleep.

“Hi.”

“Oh my God!”
Holly screamed.  “Are you okay?  I was at the hospital all day yesterday and
the assholes wouldn’t let me see you.”

“Can you come
get me?” Stacy asked. 

“They’re
letting you go home already?  I saw your picture on TV and you looked
horrible!” Holly said.  “I’m already getting out of bed.  I’m going to shower
and I’ll be there in 45 minutes.”